5 Outbound Calling Benefits Every Company Should Know
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Stevee Daneille
Mar 17, 2017
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7 min read
Calling
Outbound calls can be divisive, especially when they are unsolicited. That's because many people associate these communications with robocalls and scams. However, outbound calling can be a worthwhile customer outreach strategy that generates leads, boosts revenue, collects customer data, and increases brand awareness when performed correctly.
Modern companies use various technologies to connect with leads and existing customers, including social media, blogs, and email marketing. However, sometimes a simple outbound phone call is all it takes to secure a sale or engage a customer. Call center agents that use outbound calling intelligently and ethically can reap multiple benefits for their companies, including prospect qualification and relationship building. In this post, learn more about outbound calls and their many advantages.
Five key takeaways you need to know about outbound calling:
1. Outbound calling typically involves a sales agent phoning a customer to generate sales, increase brand awareness, or collect data.
2. This marketing technique can help your company explain its products and services and increase revenue.
3. The benefits of outbound calling include lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead qualification.
4. Outbound calling can work out to be cheaper than traditional outbound sales campaigns.
5. FiveCRM is a call center solution that can automate many of the tasks associated with outbound calling.
What Are Outbound Calls?
Outbound calls usually involve a salesperson phoning someone on a contact list and establishing some kind of relationship with that person. The objectives of outgoing calls are numerous, ranging from increased sales to customer data collection. Outbound calling campaigns always involve a company initiating a conversation with a contact and might include techniques such as cold calling, warm calling, telemarketing, and prospecting.
Outbound calls are different from inbound calls, where someone contacts a call center to speak to a company representative. However, many organizations use both outbound and inbound calls to communicate with leads and customers.
Here are five benefits of outbound calls:
1. The Human Touch
Outbound marketing calls involve a human interaction where both the sales agent and call recipient are present and ready to engage. By calling a lead or customer and having a conversation, you can get to know that person better and potentially build a relationship. Although outbound calling techniques vary, a friendly chat with someone over the phone can open that person up to your product or service much more than when reading a script or "hard-selling." That's especially true if you have a technical product or service that you need to explain using everyday language. Therefore, outbound calls can be more effective than complex emails or product pages for demonstrating a product's unique benefits.
2. Lead Generation and Nurturing
Outbound calling is effective for generating and nurturing leads. While leads might discard or ignore letters and emails from your company, a direct phone conversation can help you resonate with potential customers and build rapport.
Outbound calling techniques like telemarketing can also be used alongside other sales and marketing strategies like direct mail, social media marketing, and email marketing. In fact, you don't have to change any of your existing marketing campaigns when incorporating outbound calls into your company. If you already have a business process that works, you can always use outbound calls as a "bolt-on" to an existing campaign. You don't have to use this type of marketing all year round.
One of the reasons outbound communications are so excellent for lead generation and nurturing is that they increase brand awareness. You can explain your company's benefits directly to people over the phone instead of including them in a social media post that no one will read or in an email that ends up in a spam folder.
3. Qualifying Leads
Outbound calls can qualify leads significantly, helping you clean up contact lists and approve quality leads. If you are unsure whether a particular contact is suitable for nurturing, a quick phone call lets you establish that person's purchasing habits, desires, and intentions. When that contact is open to your product or service, you can develop a relationship. If the person is not interested, you can cross them off your list.
Outbound calls can also improve market research functions. By learning more about your audience over the phone, you can qualify more leads and optimize your entire lead management strategy.
4. Outbound Calls Are Cheaper Than Traditional Outbound Sales Teams
Employing mobile sales agents who travel to clients can be expensive and incur unpredictable overheads. On the other hand, establishing an outbound call center can reach a larger geographic area and target more leads and customers. With outbound calls, the only downtime happens when agents end a conversation and dial the next phone number.
Outbound calling practices also provide more flexibility than managing an in-person sales team. With all your agents under the same roof, you can provide everyone with the latest information, train your entire team simultaneously, and create a company culture that favors teamwork and collaboration.
Even if you prefer face-to-face communications, outbound calls can still prove beneficial. For example, contacting in-person leads ahead of time kick-starts the relationship-building process and helps you gather valuable information about potential customers. Outbound sales calls give in-person agents time to qualify contacts and prepare for a face-to-face visit.
5. It's Easy to Measure and Test Outbound Campaigns
Using a CRM specifically designed for outbound campaigns helps you test and track your outbound marketing efforts for more successful lead generation, lead nurturing, and sales enablement. The right software lets you access real-time insights about outbound calling practices such as call durations, number of calls, hangup rates, conversion rates, and agent performance statistics. You can learn information, such as the best time to contact a lead and the most effective conversational styles for agents. As a result, you can make smarter decisions in your business and grow your outbound call center services.
How Does FiveCRM Make Outbound Calling More Effective?
Despite its reputation, outbound calling provides call centers with multiple benefits. However, managing outbound campaigns remains a challenge, especially as data governance legislation becomes stricter. FiveCRM is a call center solution that streamlines many processes associated with outbound calls, such as data compliance, account management, contract tracking, and lead generation. This GDPR-compliant software helps companies like yours, offering features that you won't find in a traditional CRM that serves multiple industries.
FiveCRM assists with the following outbound calling tasks:
- Managing and updating contact information on lists.
- Storing telemarketing data and customer consent information.
- Creating and updating call scripts in your contact center.
- Improving customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and the customer experience.
- The automation of outbound calling workflows and workloads.
FiveCRM has powered outbound sales teams to increase efficiency, decrease dial lag and double call rates compared to a traditional CRM system. Additionally, outbound campaign is made easy with real time analytics and reporting on the latest KPIs and metrics.
Contact FiveCRM for a demo today.
Michael King says...
"I can’t think of a time where a client has requested something that we weren’t able to do with FiveCRM. Unlike most systems, it has a lot of flexibility."
Managing Director, Senior Response
JAINE HUSBANDS SAYS...
“Each client, and each of their campaigns, has its own unique specifications. We essentially needed to set up mini CRMs on one platform to meet those requirements.”
Operations Director, Team Telemarketing
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